


All I Want for Christmas is You (To Shut Up)

by CassidyLeora



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Attempt at Humor, Brief suicidal thoughts, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, First Meetings, Fluff, Happy Ending, M/M, and also kinda cute, annoying neighbor is annoying, little angsty but mostly soft, tiny bit of language because vanitas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:14:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21945706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CassidyLeora/pseuds/CassidyLeora
Summary: Vanitas' new Christmas obsessed neighbor Ventus is so annoying with his obnoxious decorations and hideous sweaters and cute smile and pretty eyes...Yeah, just maybe Vanitas doesn't want to be alone this Christmas.
Relationships: Vanitas & Ventus (Kingdom Hearts), Vanitas/Ventus (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 18
Kudos: 63





	All I Want for Christmas is You (To Shut Up)

**Author's Note:**

> This... is my first time ever posting my writing publicly, and I can see no better start than this little self-indulgent VanVen Christmas story! Merry Christmas Eve, I hope you enjoy!

That idiot was at it again.

Though Vanitas had been vigorously scrubbing at a plate, the rest of the dishes now sit forgotten in the sink as he gazed out the window directly in front of him where, in the neighbor’s yard, he could see _him_.

Today’s sweater was just as atrocious as every other day, this time the neon green and red almost like a beacon, demanding the attention of every nearby apartment, adorned with…were those actual bells?

_Ridiculous._

But that wasn’t even the worst part. In the neighbor’s arms was a giant turkey that must’ve weighed many pounds more than the twig of a boy who carried it, causing him to struggle to wrap his arms fully around it while he maneuvered it out of his car. Vanitas watched with mild amusement as the stranger attempted a few times before managing to kick the door closed with his foot.

His trek to his front door was more of a pathetic waddle than anything, the extra weight straining his arms as he tried to see the path in front of him over the top of the turkey. But it wasn’t working out well, and at a gap in the stone…

Vanitas visibly cringed as the man tripped and thudded to the pavement. Luckily it seems the turkey broke most of his fall, and _damn_ just how dense was that thing? It appeared unscathed.

Vanitas had a fleeting thought to rush outside and help this guy up, it was just starting to get pathetic really, but felt himself relax when he was already getting to his feet without hesitation.

_Could nothing bring this kid down?_

After retrieving the cursed turkey again, he ambled up his porch steps without fault and Vanitas couldn’t help his snort at how much effort had to go into getting his front door open with both his arms full. _Just set the turkey down to unlock the door, you idiot!_

Finally, the door closed behind him, and Vanitas was left looking at nothing, the all-too familiar sound of silence filling his empty home, as well as the running water he had accidentally left on.

•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•

_Damn Sora._

_‘I’ll be visiting the islands to spend Christmas with Riku’_ , he says in that overly cheerful voice that not even the bad cellphone connection could dull. ‘ _I figured it’s okay, since you always seem to hate coming over for Christmas anyway.’_

Vanitas had grumbled something about _‘Whatever, I don’t care’_ despite Sora rambling on a bit more before having to hang up or else he’d miss his flight.

The first step had been staring into nothing in his dark living room, blinking a few times before trying to process exactly what this strange stirring was in his chest. Disappointment? Bitterness? Uncertainty?

Vanitas always spent Christmas day sleeping over at Sora’s, joined by Roxas, Xion, Riku and Kairi. It was always too loud, too busy, and too annoying for Vanitas to ever do much more than scowl and call Roxas names in a petty attempt to create some entertainment for himself. But it was all Vanitas had, and despite what it seems like it… wasn’t the _worst_ place to be.

But now Sora wouldn’t be here, and it’d be weird to just hang out with Roxas and Xion, so that meant he would be here, doing nothing, alone…

_To hell with it._

Who cares? Vanitas didn’t even really like spending the day eating stupid cookies or watching gross sappy movies with them way too late into the night. He could do whatever he wanted now—much more his style, right?

Sora can go off with his dumb boyfriend and they can have their dumb holiday together, who needs them!

The shovel scrapped loudly against the patio as Vanitas gave an excessively violent shove into the snow before throwing the mound off to the side, not caring where it landed.

And don’t even get Vanitas started on this infuriating patio—would it kill the landlord to install canopies over these things?! This is the 3rd time Vanitas has had to shovel the snow off this thing— _the 3 RD time—_and it was bound to happen again countless more times before spring came.

 _‘Just leave it’_ you could say, but where else is Vanitas supposed to set out the bowls of food for the stray cats if there’s snow everywhere?

The front porch won’t do (you’re not TECHNICALLY supposed to feed the strays, so it’s best to do it out of sight, such as the fenced in backyard, so the stuck-up neighbors can’t tattle on you, and they definitely would, just like they did about Vanitas _‘playing his music too loudly_ ’ or ‘ _checked his mail in indecent clothing’_ in the summertime.)

His boots kept slipping on the thin ice just under the surface of the snow, his hands within his gloves burned with how tightly he was gripping the snow shovel. Sora abandoned him for Christmas, so basically the grumbled curses continued to slip past his cold lips just like the puffs of breath that got carried away by the wind.

_THUMP_

Vanitas paused, shovel halting as he glanced around to find the source of the sound.

_Shhf, Shhf, Shhf, Shhf_

The odd noise seemed to be coming from other the fence, coming from…

Oh, the neighbor’s yard.

 _His_ yard.

As quiet as one can when handling a metal shovel on crunchy snow, Vanitas set it to the side against his house and crept off the porch, sneaking over to the wooden fence before slowly leaning up to see over the top.

His neighbor was…He was fucking…He was _making snow angels_.

Vanitas blinked down at the form of his weird ass neighbor, spread eagle on the snow in his own backyard, opening and closing his arms and legs wide to leave the deep imprint of an angel.

_What a little freak._

Despite how damp his oversized coat will surely be after this, and the clumps of frozen snow sticking to his gloves and tangling in the bits of wild blonde hair that poked out from his hat, the guy didn’t seem bothered at all. In fact, he seemed downright delighted, his eyes closed and beaming smile pushing his flushed red cheeks up high enough to brush against his eyelashes. Which actually looked pretty long, now that Vanitas thought about it.

Which he definitely wasn’t.

The neighbor stopped his movements and opened his eyes. Vanitas only got a split glimpse of blue that glinted even brighter against all the white before he ducked back behind the fence as the neighbor sat upright.

Huddled behind his own fence in his own yard, Vanitas couldn’t help but think _what the hell am I doing._ Then he heard more shuffling and curiosity got the best of him, so he risked another peek over the fence, his eyes barely popping over the top in fear of being seen.

But luckily the other man didn’t seem to notice him at all, and instead flopped himself from his hands and knees flat onto his stomach, face melding with the snow below him as he started flailing his arms again to create a new angel.

_What kind of masochistic…_

He was _laughing._

This freak was laughing, voice muffled by the face full of snow but bright enough to send a shock down Vanitas’ spine at the sound. Easy, pure, full of light, sort of like those stupid bells this guy insisted on wearing on his ugly sweaters. It wiped Vanitas’ mind completely until he was staring numbly down at this mysterious creature, zeroing in on that wonderful sound and the swinging limbs and oh no he’s got a really nice butt too…

_What the hell is happening to me._

•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•

It was daytime. It had to be. Despite the clock on Vanitas’ nightstand reading 1AM, the light beaming in front his bedroom window was like the sun. Except the sun didn’t periodically flash red and green.

No, it was just the neighbors cursed Christmas lights he’d spent hours setting up the day before.

Vanitas stared into the darkness—er, the brightness, of his ceiling, counting the changes in colors in a desperate attempt to calm himself down before he burst right out of his own skin, but it only served to make the anger boil hotter until he heaved the piles of blankets off himself and shoved his feet into his slippers.

Not bothering to pull on anything more than the long-sleeved fleece shirt and sweat pants he already wore, he padded through the dark house and yanked the front door open in a vice grip before slamming it shut and storming off through the snow towards his stupid neighbor’s yard.

His eyes begged for relief as he approached the small gap between their apartments, burning as he got closer and closer to the offending Christmas lights, or should he say _nuclear bomb_. The amount of strings of lights and snowmen blow ups and robotically moving reindeers was way too much for a house this or _any_ size, filling up every inch of the small yard with just enough room for the neighbor to squeeze his car out of the narrow driveway. The whole thing glowed with a cacophony of colors so bright Vanitas was surprised all the power within the next 5 blocks didn’t shut off. If this outrageous display managed to light up the entire interior of Vanitas’ house, how could this guy stand it in his own front yard?!

Scowling from the brightness and from annoyance, Vanitas tore his eyes away and pounded up the steps, slamming his fist against the door too many times before shoving both hands into his pockets, though it did little to stop the coldness from biting through his clothes and causing him to shiver on the stranger’s porch.

While he waited, Vanitas glanced over his shoulder at the obnoxious amount of lights filling the yard, scoffing as he noticed satin Santa hats that had been placed on a few light-up bears.

_This guy…_

_‘This guy’_ could be heard shuffling behind the door—Vanitas whipped his head back around, eyes boring through the door as a bit more rustling and clicking of a lock came muffled through the wood before it pulled open slowly.

There he stood, wrapped up in a fluffy robe patterned with penguins that would have made Vanitas laugh if he wasn’t so pissed, and he had the nerve to look confused.

“Hello?”

His voice sounded like musical bells, too.

“I can’t sleep.”

He blinked. “…What?”

“Because of the carnival in your front yard.”

“My…” The neighbor’s eyes darted over Vanitas’ shoulder to the yard that was currently projecting like a spotlight into his face, reflecting in his big blue eyes and making his blonde bedhead that was more comparable to a bird’s nest shine like gold silk. It looked infuriatingly soft.

“Oh.”

_Yeah, ‘oh’._

“Sorry.”

It could’ve been the cold that was currently numbing his sense, but this bastard didn’t sound sorry at all.

Vanitas jerked his shoulders up in a shrug, glaring at him as a scoff ripped itself from his throat. _What sort of rude…_

“I’m not turning them off.”

A few owlish blinks needed to happen before Vanitas could speak, “Excuse me?”

“I’m not turning them off,” he repeated, meeting Vanitas’ eyes without backing down—which is impressive considering Vanitas’ current incredulous stare has been known to send most backing warily away from him. The stranger didn’t seem effected in the least, he even dared to sound a little annoyed at _Vanitas_ , as if _he_ was the one with a fire hazard waiting to happen in his yard.

“Wh…” Vanitas struggled to grasp words, fumbling around in his brain at the unexpected turn of events, “ _What the hell do you expect me to do then?_ ”

The neighbor tilted his head and crossed his arms, actually considering this. “Maybe you could get some blinds for the windows?”

“S-S-Some b-b…I’m not getting _blinds_ , you _ass!_ ” Vanitas hissed through his teeth, from the cold or from fear of waking the neighbors and inevitably being blamed for it as if this whole ridiculous situation was _his_ fault, “Just turn them off at night like a normal person!”

“I’m not turning them off. There’s no law that says I have to.”

“It’s called being a decent neighbor, you bitch.”

“’Decent neighbors’ don’t call each other _‘bitch’_ , I don’t think.”

“I literally couldn’t possibly care less what you think of me, you’re the one who started this.”

“You’re the one who barged up to my door at 1AM but go off I guess.”

“ _Because your god forsaken Christmas lights are frying my eyes out of my skull while I try to sleep!”_

The silent standoff that following was nothing more than the two of them holding eye contact, as if seeing who would blink first, who would back down first.

Vanitas was good at winning—it was really one of the only things he was good at, his stubbornness outmatching even Sora’s throughout their childhood, a skill he’d honed throughout his life. But his intimidation clearly wasn’t working for the first time with this guy, who leveled with him equally, even with his arms crossed in a dumb penguin nightgown.

Just who exactly _was_ he, looking unamused while Vanitas fumed out in the cold, resembling a wet feral rat while he dared to look ethereal with his glistening blue eyes and tousled blonde hair and as much as Vanitas hated those damn lights, the patterns of colors they cast on his smooth pale skin was awfully distracting and the way he pursed his pink lips didn’t help and _wow they look just as soft as his hair really—_

That’s what broke Vanitas, caused him to jerk his eyes away like he’d been burned, forced him to grumble curses on this guy and every single one of his Christmas lights and spin around to stomp back to his own house like a child.

“By the way, my name’s—”

“I don’t give a damn what your name is!” Vanitas shouted over his shoulder as he retreated, the crunching snow getting stuck in his slippers and freezing his toes even further. It was difficult to make a dramatic exist when you’re half tripping over snow and ice.

“Goodnight!”

“ _Fuck you!_ ”

By the time he reached his own porch, he heard the door close and flicked his eyes over to see the guy had gone back inside. Then he looked at the still flashing Christmas lights, mocking him. Then down at his soaked socks and slippers.

_Great…_

•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•

Vanitas watched the digital stove clock strike midnight, but nothing happened. He stared at the stark LED lights until it even turned to 12:02, and still everything remained the same—dark, silent…

Officially Christmas eve, and nothing changed.

_Of course, it didn’t._

He pulled the quilt tighter around his shoulders, fighting off the cold air in the empty house that tried to claw its way between the cracks. He glanced down at his phone, but it didn’t light up, didn’t ring.

What would make him think Sora would call him at midnight anyway? Besides the fact that he would always pounce on Vanitas’ bed at exactly 11:59:59 since they were children, shrieking his dumb ‘ _Merry Christmas Eve!!!’_ that made Vanitas’ ears bleed and shove him off and beg to let him fall back to sleep. But he wasn’t here this year, he was probably having a great time in the islands with Riku and Kairi and who knows who else. Maybe the time zones were different? Vanitas didn’t remember.

He let out a quiet sigh as he stretched. He should probably move to the couch soon, the stool causing his spine to slump uncomfortably. Or, better yet, he might as well just head to bed—it’s not like he had any other plans, and it might help get this holiday over with if he slept straight through it.

_THUNK THUNK!_

The knocks came from the front door, but Vanitas didn’tx move immediately. Sora wasn’t even on the continent, and it’s not like Vanitas had any other friends, so who…?

Finally, he found motivation to get himself to stir, a little sluggish from the cold, and shuffled his way to the door, where he unlocked and pulled it open with a creak to find—

No one.

The doorway was completely empty. Dubiously, he leaned his head out and looked both ways, but found no one in sight, nothing except for…

At his feet sat a box.

Or, a present, to be more exact, perfectly wrapped in colorful paper that seemed to have the pattern of cartoon cats wearing Santa Claus hats. It was quite large, Vanitas found as he crouched down despite himself to investigate, square and thick. The confused frown wouldn’t leave Vanitas face until he reached out, bare hands leaving the warm safety of his blanket cocoon to lift open the glittery tag in the center.

“ _To: The Angry Guy Next Door_ ”, it read in curvy handwriting, followed by “ _From: Your Asshole Neighbor :P_ ”

Vanitas had half a mind to slam the door shut and leave it out there, or better yet stomp the damn thing flat, but he couldn’t deny he was curious, and maybe just a little amused.

So, he pulled it inside, giving a last look around outside, but caught no sight of what’s-his-name.

After the shut door blocked out the last of the chilly wind, he carried the package over to the coffee table where he deposited it none-too-gently before plopping himself onto the couch. The gift was so carefully wrapped, smooth edges and clean presentation, it was almost a shame to ruin it. But the wrapping paper was honestly so ugly, and it came from _him_ , so Vanitas decided to shred it open without remorse.

Shoving the carboard open, he looked inside to find…

To find, oh my god…

_Fucking curtains._

Heavy weight, expensive ones, too, by the look of them, made with deep red satin and large enough to cover a very specific bedroom window. At least they weren’t hideously patterned and looked much like something Vanitas would have chosen himself, but still.

Vanitas was seconds away from throwing the whole thing into the trash, but while he stared in disbelief, he noticed one more thing inside.

Shoving the fabric aside, he pulled out an unopened set of sound-proof black headphones, with a final note shaped like a rabbit stuck on the outside.

“ _Oh, and you might need these too XOXO_ ”

Indignation forgotten, bafflement took its place as Vanitas held them in his hands, rereading the note a few times to find it didn’t make any more sense the 3rd time around.

_Why would I need…_

Just then he heard, seeping from under the door and through the very walls of his home, originating from, you guessed it, his neighbor’s yard; Christmas music, blasting into the night. The only thing his ‘carnival’ had been missing. He looked down at the soundproof headphones and shook his head.

“That bastard....” Vanitas scoffed, but there was a smile on his face.

•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅•

It was a miracle how Vanitas managed to drive home safely, what with how blankly he was staring out the window into the dark streets. Empty streets, everyone already settled in with their family or at parties this Christmas night, but Vanitas was on his way to come home to an empty house. Which it certainly looked like it, he noticed as he pulled up into his driveway, not a single light shining through the (now curtained) windows, not even a tree or a single strand of lights sparkling across the freshly fallen snow.

A sharp contrast to his neighbor’s yard, which was still painfully bright and chaotic like some festive rave, the music muffled from inside the car.

It’s not like Vanitas hated the holiday—it’s just that he thought it was too overrated, what with these big corporations preying on excitable souls every single year to spend an absurd amount of money on useless gifts and cheap lights that were designed to break in time to be replaced the next season. Everyone in a good mood, doing good deeds—it was _awful_. Sora always said he was the Grinch, and Vanitas could never deny it.

The only good thing about Christmas was lazing around with the others eating too much popcorn or seeing just how much he would have to tease Roxas before his forced ‘Christmas Spirit’ cracked and they beat each other up in the living room. That obviously wasn’t happening this year, so that left nothing.

Just the fast food he’d picked up to drown his bad mood in.

Sora had given him a call, not exactly at midnight on Christmas but close enough afterwards. There was so much hollering it was hard to hear, but Vanitas gathered that he and the others were wishing him a Merry Christmas. Sora asked what Vanitas was doing, and he brushed it off, saying nothing much. He definitely didn’t say that he had been waiting for this call for an hour and a half, and, as annoyingly perceptive as Sora usually is to Vanitas’ emotions, he didn’t notice, probably due to all the noise on his side. The call ended shortly after, Sora apologizing but that they were dragging him to pass around presents. Vanitas said it was fine, have fun, then the call went silent.

Vanitas wondered what they were doing right now…

But, one can only stare into the abyss and listen to Mariah Carey’s “ _All I Want for Christmas is You_ ” so long before losing their mind entirely, so Vanitas unwillingly pulled himself from the car, catching himself on the doorframe as he nearly slipped on the ice that had begun to coat the driveway. He would have to break it up and shovel by the next morning, no doubt.

_Great._

Vanitas stacked the plastic to-go boxes of Chinese food into his arms (the Christmas Feast of Losers) before shoving the door shut with his hip and beginning his perilous trek to his front door.

He tried to plant his boots carefully, each step threatening to slide, and fortunately he managed to make it past the hood of his car and to the gap before his porch steps began.

Unfortunately, that’s as far as he made it, one wrong step sending him crashing to the pavement.

He managed to catch himself on his elbows and knees inches before his face smashed into the snow, the thick fabric of his gloves and jacket softening the blow, but his beloved take-out hadn’t been nearly as lucky.

The Chinese food lay splattered across the driveway like a salty massacre, noodles strewn about and soy sauce staining the crisp white snow a sickly brown.

Vanitas stared at it for a minute, the wind chilling his cheeks and Kelly Clarkson’s “ _Underneath the Tree_ ” filling the otherwise pressing silence of the night.

Defeated, Vanitas threw himself down onto his back in the snow, looking up at the night sky without really seeing it.

The ice bit into his back as he lay flat, a dull throbbing already beginning to grow in his knees and elbows from where they’d collided with the ice. The air shifted now and then from red to green to white as the neighbors disgusting display of merriment flashed, the shine bleeding over into Vanitas’ yard and lighting up his blank expression as he gazed absently at the hundreds of flickering stars spread above. His head was probably laying in the spilled soy sauce. It was probably getting in his hair.

He couldn’t bring himself to move, to get up. Not to stomp back inside or to curse the stupid ice, not to clean up the mess or to drive back out into the lonely night to retrieve another dinner for himself tonight.

Maybe he would starve. Maybe he would freeze solid out here in the snow, forced to listen to horrible Christmas songs on loop. They would find him dead in his own driveway in the morning, with sushi scattered around his head and bruises on his elbows. Maybe they’d rule it an accident—slipped and fell and passed out until the cold took him—but Vanitas couldn’t help but hope they labeled it as murder. What a crime scene this would make. Sora would read about it in the news once he got home and…

It’d bum Sora out for sure, but honestly who cares? Maybe 2 people would show up to his funeral, Riku only because Sora forced him to, but then Sora would obviously get over it, considering he didn’t seem to miss Vanitas at all on Christmas. Hell, it’s like he’d already forgotten about him completely…

Despite the freezing cold settling into Vanitas’ skin and causing his bones to shiver, his eyes burned, unshed tears swimming until the sky above him began to distort itself.

Stupid. _Stupid, stupid, stupid!_

Vanitas scrubbed angrily at his eyes with a shaking hand before letting it flop back down at his side, the drying tears warming his cheeks. He’s absolutely not about to lay here and cry—he’s already pathetic enough as it is, he could keep at least a last shred of dignity!

Vanitas tried to focus on something else, anything else to stop himself from spiraling, but all he could hear was that damn music.

_“I found, what I was looking for_

_A love that's meant for me_

_A heart that's mine completely_

_Knocked me right off my feet”_

Even the universe was mocking him.

_Fucking great._

_Crnch, crnch, crnch._

The noise grew louder, but Vanitas didn’t move to look at what was causing it. Just waited as it continued towards his direction. If it was an axe murderer or a rabid dog, honestly just let it kill him.

The steps finally stopped just near Vanitas, and the figure leaned directly over Vanitas, blocking his view of the sky.

It was _him_.

“Hey,” the blonde haired boy said casually, peering down at Vanitas like he was a mangled dead animal he’d found on the side of the road.

“What do you want?” Vanitas’ voice was unusually quiet and rough, a subtle burning in his throat lingering behind.

“Nothing, really,” The neighbor shrugged, his hands tucked in his jacket pockets for warmth. He glanced around at the scene, his face neutral, before looking down at Vanitas again. Blue eyes met gold. “Just coming over to see what you were doing.”

“Well, you saw, goodbye.”

“Do you need help up?”

“I’m not moving.”

“You’re going to freeze to death.”

“Then so be it!” Vanitas huffed, this bickering actually helping his mood, in a convoluted way, “Just leave me alone.”

“Okay,” The guy said, and shifted. Vanitas closed his eyes, waiting for the retreating crunch of footsteps, but instead he heard more shuffling from right beside him. Annoyed, he opened his eyes again to find the stranger lowering himself onto the ground next to him, where he settled down into the snow.

Vanitas peered over at him, “What the hell are you doing.”

He glanced over before returning his focus back to the sky above. The space of snow between them was mere inches. “Dying with you. Might as well.”

Vanitas drug his vision upwards as well, but he wasn’t seeing much of anything. His muscles were tense, but not just from the cold. He could feel the body heat from the neighbor seeping from where their jacket sleeves touched, could smell his cologne over the scent of cheap Chinese food. Was that pine and ginger? Leave to this guy to purposefully smell like a Christmas tree.

“You see that?” Vanitas forced himself not to jump when an arm suddenly shot upwards from beside him, pointing upwards, “That’s Cetus. It’s the 4th largest constellation in the sky. It’s supposed to look like a sea monster, but I think it just looks like a whale.”

Vanitas couldn’t see anything at all, had no idea what he was supposed to be looking at in the first place, but the guy didn’t seem bothered because he was already pointing to a different direction.

“And those 4 stars there are called the Fornax. It’s not really supposed to be anything, actually, but a guy called Lacaille named it in honor of his friend who later ended up called a traitor and had his head cut off in the French Revolution.”

The arm lowered. Vanitas would never see the sky the same.

“It’s pretty interesting stuff.”

“ _Nerd_ ,” Vanitas scoffed, finding that part of himself wanted the blonde to continue talking. Not that he was particularly interested in astronomy, but his voice was strangely calming and nice to…

There was a snort of a life from beside him. “I’m Ventus by the way.”

“…Vanitas,” he grumbled out.

The neighbor, Ventus, lifted his arm and held his hand out. Vanitas awkwardly took it and shook his gloved hand. Both of their arms dropped back by their sides.

“…Weird name.”

“Says the guy who’s literally named ‘ _Ventus_ ’.”

Ventus laughed at that, the sound better than whatever dumb tune coming from the other yard Vanitas was blocking out.

Vanitas risked a glance over at Ventus, but he was still looking up at the stars, as if they were stargazing atop a grassy hill and not laying on top of eggrolls in minus degree weather. The small smile on his lips was made more distracting by the slow roll of colors that turned his skin into mosaic glass.

“So, _Ventus_ ,” he said mockingly, “If you clearly love Christmas so much, how come you’re alone on Christmas night? I figured you’d be out all night at parties or something.”

“Nah,” Ventus shrugged, the movement brushing against Vanitas’ shoulder, “Terra and Aqua were busy with work, Eraqus is out of town… It’s just me.”

Vanitas still hadn’t looked away, and it proved to be a mistake when Ventus looked over at him, the bit of distance between them seeming to get even smaller with those big blue eyes focused on his own, “And you? Mr. Grinch didn’t have any better plans than to throw his take-out all over the porch?”

“S-Shut up,” Vanitas jerked his head away, told himself the skip in his words was just the hypothermia kicking in. The stars above him weren’t as bright as Ventus’ eyes, though. _Dumb._

“…My brother’s gone away this week, so I figured I’d just stay home. Holidays are stupid anyway.”

The silence was suspicious, Vanitas already growing used to the incessant chattering of his neighbor.

“You wanna spend Christmas with me instead, then?”

Whipping his head back to the side, Ventus’ eyes flickered across his face so quick he could’ve imagined it. “W _hat_? Why the hell would you want to do that?”

Another shrug. Yeah, they must be getting closer.

“We’re both losers with nothing better to do. Besides, I’ve got a turkey in the oven and I think I’m lying in your food, so do you have a better suggestion?”

Vanitas glared at him, that easy going expression and expectantly raised eyebrows, eyes that said he already knew the answer. Vanitas did too.

“Fine,” he bit out, “But don’t murder me the minute I step inside your house.”

“I won’t if you won’t.”

Ventus sat up, his back covered in snow and something that looked suspiciously like rice and began to clamber to his feet. Vanitas unwillingly lifted himself too, observing the mess still around him and the ache in his spine. He’d have to clean all this up some time, but…

A hand lowered itself in front of his face, and he raised his eyes to Ventus, who gave his own hand a little shake for emphasis, “C’mon, I’m freezing. I’ll make us some hot chocolate.”

_Slap the hand away._

_Bite his fingers off._

But Vanitas did neither of these things. He actually took it with his own, feeling the smaller hand beneath the glove wrap around his and help pull him to his feet, careful to keep his balance lest he faceplant again.

Ventus let go of him ( _regrettably_ ), and with a beckon of his head led the way between their yards and to his front door, the parade of Christmas decorations still flashing as he passed them.

And, unbelievably, Vanitas followed.

_Maybe the holiday really was turning him soft._

**Author's Note:**

> I imagine Ven's house to look something like this: https://wtop.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/tacky6.jpg  
> Poor Vanitas...  
> Thank you so so much for reading, feel free to comment or scream with me about all things vanven with me on twitter! @CassidyLeora


End file.
